Anyone who claims that they completely don't need government and/or don't get any measurable benefits from it is clearly insane and not in touch with the world around them.

HOWEVER:

There is a difference in the way this logic is stated and the way it is often used. The idea that we all benefit from having certain government programs and regulations in place is obvious, but this argument is often used to support the idea that if some government is good then more must be better, and there is a logical fallacy between those two ideas; the one very much does NOT guarantee the other.

Anyone who claims that they completely don't need government and/or don't get any measurable benefits from it is clearly insane and not in touch with the world around them.

HOWEVER:

There is a difference in the way this logic is stated and the way it is often used. The idea that we all benefit from having certain government programs and regulations in place is obvious, but this argument is often used to support the idea that if some government is good then more must be better, and there is a logical fallacy between those two ideas; the one very much does NOT guarantee the other.

I think you need to look at the bigger picture with this.

We Americans, in general, as a society, tend to think "more is better". Whether food portion size, vehicle size, house size, TV screen size, bank account size, number of lovers, etc. I'm not sure whether it's a cause or effect of our rampant consumerism, but one definitely influences the other._________________...if a single leaf holds the eye, it will be as if the remaining leaves were not there.https://www.facebook.com/O.A.Drake/https://twitter.com/oadrake

I think that boiling things down to complete generalities like that is pretty much useless in dealing with actual real world issues and is more appropriate for philosophy students masturbating their acadamia peens._________________

But i'm pretty sure almost no one holds a philosophy of government for governments sake because we exist in a world of nuance. The thought process behind it is better described as a scale of how much people think government should be responsible for. Attempting to boil it down to more government or less completely ignores the fact that the question is actually Should the government handle problem X or not?

I challenge you to find anyone that isn't a complete fringe lunatic respected by next to none that makes claims like "Government should handle X because yay more government"._________________

I disagree. If there's a problem we always take a "more" approach first.

We send more troops. We spend more money. We make more laws. We make more regulations. We make more requirements. We add more code. We work more hours. We charge more. We build more. We mine more. We refine more. More, more, more._________________...if a single leaf holds the eye, it will be as if the remaining leaves were not there.https://www.facebook.com/O.A.Drake/https://twitter.com/oadrake

So farm subsidies are the same as nasa. Law enforcement is the same as foreign aid. PBS is equivalent to INS.

I mean hey it's all just "more" government.

What I'm saying is that Americans treat "more" the same as "better" in many, if not most, cases.

Which is relevant in cases of government how? No one says "lets make the biggest bureaucracy ever" They say "government needs to handle this" and government is created to handle an issue._________________

They most certainly do, they just don't realize it. People regularly want things that could only be readily accomplished with more government involvement i.e. bigger government. Just because they're ignorant of what it takes to achieve what they want doesn't change the reality of it._________________...if a single leaf holds the eye, it will be as if the remaining leaves were not there.https://www.facebook.com/O.A.Drake/https://twitter.com/oadrake

They most certainly do, they just don't realize it. People regularly want things that could only be readily accomplished with more government involvement i.e. bigger government. Just because they're ignorant of what it takes to achieve what they want doesn't change the reality of it.

So first back this up with some data, and second explain how this is necessarily a bad thing as the tone of your posting has been implying such._________________